Kanika Tekriwal, a 27-year-old entrepreneur, is the founder of JetSetGo, Indias first

and only marketplace for private jet planes and helicopters. Her organization
provides private jets for birthday parties, business trips and other similar events.
She was diagnosed with cancer in her 20s, but this did not deter her for creating a
unique identity of her own.
Anisha Singh turned her daily deals startup MyDala around from the brink of failure in 2011, when
the coupon model was unravelling with the troubles at Groupon. It was tough. My second child was
a few weeks old, and my older one, a toddler. But I wasnt ready to give up on my company, she
told Tech in Asia in an earlier interview. Pushed into a corner, she made a bold turn towards mobile
back when smartphone penetration in India was a mere five percent. Today MyDala has a
presence in over 200 Indian cities and 200 million registered users.
Anisha began her career in the US after graduating from American University. She worked with the
Clinton administration, helping women entrepreneurs raise funding. That inspired her to return to
India in 2009 and start up her own venture.
Sairee, CEO and founder of Sheroes, is not just an inspiration for women, shes also making a direct impact by
finding jobs for them. The idea for Sheroes came from the observation that I was surrounded by so many
women who had left their career options behind for social responsibilities [such as raising a family]. I just want to
show them that this doesnt need to be the end of the road, Sairee told Tech in Asia in a recent interview.
This former journalist is currently holding a Sheroes summit in major Indian cities to connect women
professionals with businesses. The push toward a Digital India is a watershed moment for all educated women in
the country. Digital access is a boon to those who cannot engage in a typical 9-to-5 job yet wish to continue their
careers, says Sairee.
Nidhi is a solo founder. That makes entrepreneurship twice as tough, or so some say. Her trigger to start womens apparel
brand Kaaryah was a rather exasperating morning she spent hunting for a smart shirt and jacket. She spilt coffee on her
clothes while waiting to board a plane to Bangalore from Delhi. She was heading for an important meeting and wanted to
dress sharp. So she dashed to the mall nearby, scouted for a good fit in vain. That got her thinking and also talking to a lot of
others like her. They all shared her crib no brand focused on the workwear needs of young, urban, working women.
The idea was a winner right from the beginning: there was a clear need, the market was ready, and our unit economics was
positive from the start. But despite all that, raising funds for growth capital was next to impossible. I had to face 113
rejections, Nidhi tells me. Kaaryah went on to raise its first round of funding an undisclosed amount from Indias top
business tycoon Ratan Tata. Before starting Kaaryah, Nidhi was a director at Honeywell. She is also a chartered accountant
with over 15 years of experience in strategic consulting and auditing.
Pranshu Bhandari, who founded language learning platform CultureAlley along with Nishant Patni two years ago, is
making a fundamental social impact in India with a HelloEnglish app. In India, folks who do not speak proper English
are not able to get better jobs. Some of them are not even able to get their first job. We realized that English was
that really fundamental need that was a must-have for people, she told Tech in Asia in a recent conversation.
That wasnt how CultureAlley began, however. We actually started CultureAlley as a platform for people to learn
foreign languages like Spanish, Mandarin, Portuguese, and so on. But while we were doing that, we realized that
English was a much, much larger market, says Pranshu. Hello English grew from zero to seven million users in a year,
Pranshu tells us.
Being a woman working with Spencers retail store, Richa Kar understood the problem shy Indian women faced
while buying lingerie. That prompted the BITS, Pilani grad to launch Indias first online lingerie marketplace for
women. The Indian woman, who is more confident than ever before, is indulging herself in lingerie to express her
individuality. She wants to look and feel good and has the economic independence to splurge on lingerie she never
had access to before. Zivame is the catalyst of this change; using technology to understand her better, Richa says.

Zivame raised US$40 million in a funding round in September 2015, becoming one of the top-funded ecommerce
sites in India that year.\
A post-grad from the London School of Economics, Suchi Mukherjee was the MD of Gumtree, an eBay
company. She was on maternity leave when she decided to become an entrepreneur. She gave birth to
both her second child and her startup in 2012.

Today the startup she founded, LimeRoad, is one of the leading marketplaces for womens fashion in
India. It sets itself apart by combining fashion ecommerce with social discovery, leveraging Suchis
insights on engaging with women shoppers. It raised US$30 million in funding in March 2015, making it
only the second startup founded by a woman in our list of 15 top-funded ecommerce startups that year.
This fairly new cashback site, which raised a series A funding round of US$3.8 million in 2015, has over 1,000
partner retailer sites. Customers who access any of these through CashKaro get a cashback in their wallet or
account, which they can use on their next purchase. This is useful for retailers because it generates a repeat
purchase and engagement, rather than just a sale.

Swati Bhargava, who is a London School of Economics grad, did something similar in the UK where she was co-
founder of Pouring Pounds. I think cashback is exciting because its the model that gives the most options to
customers,
Falguni Nayar was an investment banker for about 27 years before she turned entrepreneur
three years ago. She founded Nykaa, a beauty and wellness estore. A few months ago, her
startup bagged a series B round of US$9.5 million.
This entrepreneur has run various businesses. Currently the chief operating officer (CEO) of
Portea Medical, a provider of home healthcare services in India, Meena Ganesh has led several
companies in different sectors. An alumnus of the India Institute of Management (IIM)
Calcutta, she initially worked with companies like NIIT, PWC, Microsoft, etc. before co-founding
a BPO and call centre company called Customer Asset. Ganesh later co-founded Portea
Medical with her husband.